Lauren Shippen

Lauren Shippen is a fiction writer, director, and actor. She created the podcast The Bright Sessions and its spin-off series, The AM Archives and The College Tapes. Shippen won an Audio Verse award for her portrayal of Sam in The Bright Sessions (the character also appeared in The AM Archives). She has also written three novels set in The Bright Sessions universe. Shippen was named in the 2018 Forbes 30 Under 30.[1]

Lauren Shippen
Shippen sat in a room with at least two other people
Shippen in 2017
Occupation
  • Writer
  • Director
  • Actor
LanguageEnglish
Alma materCollege of William & Mary
Genre
Notable works
Website
laurenshippen.com

Early life and education

Shippen was born in New York City. [2] She studied at the College of William & Mary where she majored in music.[3]

Career

After college, Shippen moved to Los Angeles to work as an actor, mixing auditions with working at a restaurant. Around this time she began developing ideas for a podcast, drawing on her experience of music and sound editing and partly inspired by Welcome to Nightvale. Her initial idea was to center the story on a girl who time travels, who would be played by Shippen, and to have her talk to a therapist to set up a dialogue between characters rather than having a single character monologuing.[3] This became The Bright Sessions which ran for four seasons released between 2015 and 2018, with Shippen writing the show and voicing one of the main characters, Sam Barnes.

The Bright Sessions follows people with special abilities, "atypicals", and their interactions with a therapist, Dr. Bright. Around the therapy sessions covered by each episode, a larger meta-story emerges.[4] It has been recognised for its representation of LGBTQ+ people.[1] Shippen won several Audio Verse Awards for the show: the 2016 Award for Best Writing of an Original, Short Form, Ongoing Production, the 2016 Award for Best Performance of an Actress in an Original Ensemble Role for a Short Form Production for her role as Sam.[5] and the 2017 Award for Best Writing for an Ongoing, Dramatic Production.[6] She also acts as one of the leads in the web series Natural 20 from The Escapist.[7][8]

By 2018, The Bright Sessions had reached 8 million downloads.[3] Shippen wrote a series of books about characters from the show, with the first book (The Infinite Noise) published in 2019.[9] In 2019, she co-founded a production company, Atypical Artists, with Jordan Cope and Briggon Snow. The company was set-up to publish new podcasts, especially in the universe of The Bright Sessions. Amongst the new podcasts were The AM Archives and The College Tapes, both part of the 'Bright Universe' and created and written by Shippen.[10][11]

The Bright Sessions led to opportunities to work on other shows, and John Scott Dryden contacted Shippen about working on a new fiction podcast, Passenger List. She joined the project as a co-writer and co-director along with Dryden and Mark Henry Phillips.[12] The show, part of the Radiotopia podcast network, explores the disappearance of a trans-Atlantic flight.[13] Passenger List was released in 2019 and its first season won the 2020 BBC Audio Drama Award for Best Podcast or Online Audio Drama;[14][15] the second season won the 2022 award in the same category.[16]

In 2019, Marvel and Stitcher Premium commissioned a podcast adaptation of the graphic novel MARVELS. Shippen wrote the adaption, which was directed by Paul Bae, and with sound design by Mischa Stanton.[17][18]

In 2020, Lauren served as Executive Producer and voiced the role of "Gerda" in the iHeart Radio Podcast Award-nominated musical series, In Strange Woods.[19][20][21]

In 2021, she collaborated with Aaron Mahnke to co-write Bridgewater, a fiction podcast about folklore and the Bridgewater Triangle.[22] It won the iHeartRadio Podcast Award for Best Fiction Podcast.[23] Shippen also wrote and directed Rebel Robin, a prequel podcast for the Netflix series Stranger Things with the character Robin Buckley (played by Maya Hawke) as the protagonist.[24] In 2022, Atypical Artists released Maxine Miles, a podcast created and written by Shippen. It is an interactive mystery written for a young adult audience.[25]

In July 2023, Shippen began releasing Breaker Whiskey, a fiction podcast following a woman after an apocalyptic event in the 1960s.[26]

Publications

Bright Sessions novels
  • The Infinite Noise (2019)
  • A Neon Darkness (2020)
  • Some Faraway Place (2021)

Awards and nominations
Year Award Category Work Result
2016 Audio Verse Awards Best New Original, Short Form, Small Cast, Ongoing Production[5] The Bright Sessions Won
2016 Best Writing of an Original, Short Form, Ongoing Production[5] Won
2016 Best Original, Short Form, Small Cast, Ongoing Dramatic Production[5] Won
2016 Best Performance of an Actress in an Original Ensemble Role for a Short Form Production[5] Won
2017 Best Writing for an Ongoing Dramatic Production[6] Won
2020 BBC Audio Drama Awards Best Podcast or Online Audio Drama Passenger List (season 1)[15] Won
2022 Passenger List (season 2)[16] Won
iHeartRadio Podcast Awards[23] Best Fiction Podcast Bridgewater Won

References
  1. "Lauren Shippen, 26". Forbes. Archived from the original on March 25, 2022. Retrieved March 25, 2022.
  2. "Lauren Shippen", Macmillan.com, archived from the original on June 13, 2021, retrieved March 25, 2022
  3. Gruber, Naomi (April 9, 2018). "Audio brought to life: Lauren Shippen '13 talks hit podcast's bright future". The Flat Hat. Archived from the original on November 8, 2021. Retrieved March 25, 2022.
  4. Pai, Tanya (December 9, 2016), "The Bright Sessions podcast is a compelling merging of superpowers and psychotherapy", Vox, archived from the original on March 25, 2022, retrieved March 25, 2022
  5. "2016 Winners – The Audio Verse Awards". Audio Verse Awards. Archived from the original on October 6, 2021. Retrieved March 25, 2022.
  6. "2017 Winners – The Audio Verse Awards". Audio Verse Awards. Archived from the original on October 6, 2021. Retrieved March 25, 2022.
  7. Keefer, John (January 6, 2016). "D&D Web Show Natural 20 Ventures Forth Thursday". The Escapist. Archived from the original on June 24, 2022. Retrieved March 25, 2022.
  8. "Lauren Shippen performs for Digital Pride". Gay Star News. April 28, 2017. Archived from the original on September 24, 2021. Retrieved March 25, 2022.
  9. Sarah (September 24, 2019), "Interview: 'The Infinite Noise' Author Lauren Shippen", nerdsandbeyond.com, archived from the original on May 16, 2021, retrieved March 25, 2022
  10. "Meet Lauren Shippen, Briggon Snow and Jordan Cope of Atypical Artists in West Hollywood". Voyage LA Magazine. July 16, 2019. Archived from the original on March 25, 2022. Retrieved March 25, 2022.
  11. Cortez, Alexandra (July 19, 2021). "'The Bright Sessions' Creator Lauren Shippen Is Expanding the Story". Study Breaks. Archived from the original on October 28, 2021. Retrieved March 25, 2022.
  12. Cariker, Mariel (September 16, 2019). "What Happened To Flight 702? The Mystery of 'Passenger List'". PRX Official. Archived from the original on March 25, 2022. Retrieved March 25, 2022.
  13. Quah, Nicholas (October 15, 2019). "'Passenger List' Fiction Podcast: More Than a Missing Plane". Vulture.com. Archived from the original on April 18, 2021. Retrieved March 25, 2022.
  14. "BBC Radio 4 – BBC Audio Drama Awards – The List of 2020 Winners and Commendations". BBC. Archived from the original on March 25, 2022. Retrieved March 25, 2022.
  15. "'Passenger List' Wins Best Fiction Podcast at BBC Audio Drama Awards". Nerds & Beyond. February 5, 2020. Archived from the original on March 25, 2022. Retrieved March 25, 2022.
  16. "Audio Drama Awards 2022 – The Winners". BBC. March 25, 2022. Archived from the original on April 5, 2022. Retrieved April 4, 2022.
  17. Raymonda, Bob (March 3, 2020). "Meet the Fantastic Minds Behind MARVELS". Bello Collective. Archived from the original on June 24, 2022. Retrieved March 25, 2022.
  18. Raymonda, Bob (August 25, 2020). "Marvel Assembled a Supergroup of Indie Podcasters for MARVELS". Bello Collective. Retrieved March 25, 2022.
  19. Chan, J. Clara (October 13, 2021). "iHeartRadio Podcast Awards: 'SmartLess' Leads Nominations (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on October 13, 2021. Retrieved March 2, 2022.
  20. White, Peter (November 6, 2019). "Podcast Studio Atypical Artists Teams With Musical Theatre Writers On 'Serial'-Meets-'Glee'-Style Audio Series". Deadline. Archived from the original on November 6, 2019. Retrieved March 4, 2022.
  21. Lenker, Maureen Lee (January 15, 2020). "Is the musical theater podcast the new concept album?". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on January 16, 2020. Retrieved March 4, 2022.
  22. Fenwick, George (September 5, 2021). "Bridgewater: The star-studded new podcast that is seriously spooky". Stuff. Archived from the original on March 25, 2022. Retrieved March 25, 2022.
  23. Cridland, James (February 4, 2022). "iHeartRadio Podcast Awards: the 2022 winners". podnews.net. Archived from the original on February 4, 2022. Retrieved April 1, 2022.
  24. Prosser, Keegan (June 10, 2021). "Stranger Things' Robin Gets a Prequel Podcast". CBR. Archived from the original on March 25, 2022. Retrieved March 25, 2022.
  25. Mal (February 17, 2022). "Lauren Shippen Launches Unique New Interactive Fiction Podcast 'Maxine Miles'". nerdsandbeyond.com. Retrieved March 25, 2022.
  26. "Breaker Whiskey on Apple Podcasts". Apple Podcasts. July 24, 2023. Retrieved August 3, 2023.
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